


on the same ground

by Anonymous



Category: Northendgirls' Champions League Art
Genre: Anthropomorphic, Bastardizing Shakespeare, Character Study, Gen, Goddesses, Implied/Referenced Incest, Other, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 14:05:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5459153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[for Northendgirls' Champions League Art] </p><p>The matter, however, is that North London has <em>two</em> noble Henrys: Hal of Lancaster, and "Hotspur" Harry of House Percy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	on the same ground

**Author's Note:**

  * For [saltstreets](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saltstreets/gifts).



_Underachiever_ , is what the world whispers about Hal behind her back.  _So much potential, but she does not live up to it_.

It stings, but they're not entirely wrong.

* * *

Hal is Arsenal; she is club and community; an imaginary concept; goddess personified.

* * *

Her mortal instruments dreamsleep. Within the dimension of cotton thought and fuzzy outlines, they hunger for glory and validation. Hal sits vigil for one of them every night. Would that she could hasten their recovery.

But the bad bargain has held fast-- originally undertaken by her former incarnation, her third self in the 1980s. It cannot be erased from the slate. How she has repented its making as the seasons passed. It had been--still is-- a divisive question: immortality of one season's achievement never to be equalled or surpassed, at the price of perpetual sickliness?

She has pondered the dilemma ten hundred thousand times, and is no closer to a definitive answer.

* * *

Arsenal: one of the key powers of England; more importantly, the dominant force in North London.

* * *

The lean yester-years of hardship and patient fasting are over, following the successful construction of her earthly temple at Ashburton Grove. (The soulless renaming of her new sacred ground, however much a fiscal necessity, does still rankle.) The current popularity of the sport on a global scale is higher than ever before in the entire history of humanity. And the predictions for the future are increasingly rosy-- this upcoming age will be one of prosperity, and Hal is well poised to enjoy it with her numerous advantages.

Her treasury grows more bountiful with each passing season and there is coin aplenty in the war chest-- to reload and recruit new souls, or to entice established heroes away from her rival kin accordingly. Whatever the inclination, Hal's might, while not sufficient to overcome all others, is ready to offer a challenge.

Her acolytes, if not nearly as even of temperament or constant in conviction as she would wish, are second to none in the fervour of their evangelism-- her forces dominate on the digital front. The philosophy of Arsenal is sound, and beautiful in its appeal to the untouched masses.

Wenger is her oracle, priest, and battle general. As a human, he has his imperfections (really, the dear man is frequently far too frugal for their collective good!), but in most respects he is a thoroughly capable regent. Above all, his loyalty to her has never faltered or failed any test, however minor. Hal will reward his faithful service when he passes on into the afterlife; she will transport him to the pastures of footballing Elysium, where he will be invited to partake in wine and ambrosia with Herbert Chapman, and enjoy the remainder of eternity in endless comfort. She doesn't like to think about that eventuality. 

* * *

North London is a regal domain-- proud and illustrious, this seat is the divine birthright of Henry.

The matter, however, is that North London has  _two_  noble Henrys: Hal of Lancaster, and "Hotspur" Harry of House Percy.

* * *

The face of Arsenal Football Club-- of Hal-- evolves gradually over the course of months and years and decades: a kaleidoscopic amalgam, an ever-morphing composite of its communal values, of the tangible diversity in its representatives.

At the inception of her existence, she embodied all that was quintessentially English: blue-eyed and ruddy-cheeked, sedate and sensible. As the bloom of the fair Rose faded, her rebirth arrived in a new form of beauty: ebony sharpness and a gleam of audacity. Lively and lovely, but ever so foreign. (Too foreign to be trusted, at one particular low point in history.)

* * *

Regeneration is not painful, in and of itself. But its transformative process can be startling, and the subsequent adjustment period rather uneasy.

Hal is currently the longest-lived incarnation in her circle of acquaintance. She does not anticipate a regeneration any time in the foreseeable future. 

* * *

The court of Public Opinion is fickle, and they doubt her endlessly. A mere two summers removed, they had hailed the rise of the Tottenham Hotspur, praised his every virtue against her equivalent vice, and many had predicted him to surpass her. 

Of her own followers, those who had made such pronouncements have long subsided or escaped into the wind, following perhaps in the footsteps of Hotspur's worthless acquisitions from that campaign. (Needless to say, he had not overtaken her; his efforts left him battered and near bankrupted.)

While her upstart enemy is still considerably weakened, reports say Hotspur's sympathisers have rallied around their destined boy namesake. _For Harry Kane_! they shout. An elite young striker to lead and deliver them to victory-- they seek to employ her own strategem against her. It is laughable, and Hal would be much amused indeed, were it not for her own worrying lack of an equivalent talismanic goalscorer. She has yet to identify the true successor (if one yet exists; perhaps she is not to be so blessed) to her beloved Thierry.

* * *

To her, Hotspur is simultaneously sibling and stranger and nemesis. Harry is vinegar resentment, and the marrow-deep bitterness of an illegitimate son subordinated by an opportunistic junior-- supplanted in stature.

(For the record, Hal's hands are clean and her conscience clear; she meets with unblinking eyes his accusations of blood money and poisoned meals.)

* * *

Their cousin, on the other hand, is a significant adversary. Formerly hailing of lowlier rank than Hal and Hotspur, yet avarice and an abundance of wiles has seen an ascent in her standing. Cousin beloved is an ambitious lioness-- one ignored and allowed to roam free for too long, fattening and feasting in spoils while North London waged an internal power struggle to attrition. This predator must be gunned down, and soon. Though Hal is an experienced huntress, she worries she has left the matter too late.

Chelsea is a dangerous threat-- one who dices without fear, and who has successfully bluffed crowns from the best in Europe, all under the guidance of the self-deemed Special One.

* * *

Once, and only once, Harry acknowledged herself as Hal's sister. Hal misses her.

But Harry had hated it (an "experiment", he'd termed it)-- Harry has only ever missed the fleeting and elusive taste of glory.

* * *

Here is a secret: a whisper can be as deadly as a cannonball. Direct it at the right ear, and it will topple an empire.

She appeals to the mortal agent who strayed abroad before defecting to her kinswoman-- Hal seeks out he whose heart is still tender to her influence, for he is an Arsenal prodigal. Hal is well-versed in the music of lyre-song, so this is not so different-- it is an easy thing to pluck at his heartstrings, to make the player _yearn_.

How quickly the world forgets-- she is imprinted in his soul; she was the one who blooded him on the Big Stage when he was naught but a youngster snatched from the bosom of Catalonia; even as he has donned another's garb and sworn allegiance to her enemy's crest, this prodigal bleeds Hal's colours, now and for always.

Soon, the whole of London will be red.

* * *

Hal and Hotspur do not speak of the Great Wars-- the times when all the mortals wrought destruction and slew each other, and so many perished in the monochromatic epochs of tragedy. Absent love and beauty, Football was the forgotten footnote for an entire generation of acolytes lost.

The second time, Hal had only Hotspur for comfort-- and he gave, so generously-- the same unique solace she offered, that first time. The Henrys of North London loved, and suffered together, and survived. But Hal and Hotspur are repelling twain forces pitted opposite by Fates and Nature: capable of making love only when others make war for them. The harmony was short-lived; never do they speak of it now.

And yet, Hal cannot regret the affair.

* * *

Nevertheless, this is what the lily-white pretender who calls himself Hal's brother knows not:

So long as Harry Hotspur persists in trying to manifest as a male personification, denying the true form of his regeneration, he will always-- as ordained, for the thread has been set and woven by the Fates-- fall short of the elevation he so covets into the highest tier...

For only the daughters of the Beautiful Game dine at the table of Champions.

**Author's Note:**

> Creative liberties were taken with the history and characterisation of London football clubs + top-flight European competition, Shakespeare's _Henry IV, Part I_ , and English historical figures.


End file.
